Exclusive Kenya Safari - Kenya

Day 1: Arrival In Nairobi

Upon arrival in Nairobi, head directly out on Game drive through the Nairobi National Park where you’ll spend the night at The Emakoko, a newly constructed lodge in the Mbagathi River Valley on the border of Nairobi National Park.

Accommodations: The Emakoko

Meals Included: Dinner

Days 2 - 4: Chyulu Hills, Southeast Kenya

This morning transfer to the airstrip for your flight to Chyulu Hills and Ol Donyo Lodge. Located on a 275,000 acre Maasai-owned conservancy between Amboseli, Chyulu Hills, and Tsavo National Parks. This area serves as a migration corridor for game moving between Amboseli and Tsavo and is habitat for elephant, buffalo, eland as well as specialist species such as gerenuk, oryx, and lesser kudu. Predators are present including lion, leopard and cheetah, and this area is home to one of the last Kenyan populations of black rhino. Because it is a private concession the number of vehicles on game drives is limited to just the guests at the lodge – you’re unlikely to see another vehicle. Just over the border in Tanzania Mt. Kilimanjaro stands over this entire area, serving as a stunning photography backdrop and quiet guardian.

Activities in the area include game drives in open land rovers; night game drives to see nocturnal species; walking and mountain biking with Maasai guides and horseback riding. The lodge also has a hide made from a collection of heavy logs in front of a waterhole. It’s a great place to safely see elephants at close range. Dinners and breakfasts are often served al fresco in the middle of a game drive and sundowners are a splendid way to cap off a day in the bush. In partnership with the surrounding communities Ol Donyo Lodge has assisted in the construction of local schools and a health clinic, and during your stay you’ll have opportunities to visit these projects as well as meet some of the resident Maasai.

Accommodations: Ol Donyo Lodge

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 5-7: Mathews Range, Northern Kenya

Sarara is found within the lands of the Namunyak Wildlife Conversation Trust, approximately 850,000 acres folded around the southern corner of the fabled Mathews Mountain Range of northern Kenya. This area is home to the Samburu, a tribe of semi-nomadic pastoralists who have long co-existed alongside the wildlife of the area. The conservation work carried out by the Namunyak Trust to date has been hugely successful. Notably, over 4,000 elephants are living and breeding peacefully in the southern Mathews Range area after being decimated by poaching in the 1970’s and 80’s. Each day, on foot and by vehicle, guests will seek a variety of wildlife species such as buffalo, lion, leopard, cheetah, African wild dog, greater and lesser kudu, gerenuk, reticulated giraffe, impala and dik dik.

One of the highlights of the Namunyak area is a visit to the famous “Sarara” Singing Wells. Samburu warriors bring their cattle to these watering holes on a daily basis during the dry season. The warriors form a human chain to descend up to 30 feet into the wells. While chanting traditional Samburu songs, they pass water up by hand for the cattle for several hours a day.

Accommodations: Sarara Camp

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 8-10: Maasai Mara Reserve

Return to the airstrip for your flight to Nairobi connecting to a flight to the Maasai Mara. No other place on earth compares with the multitudes of wild animals in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, part of the vast Serengeti ecosystem spanning Kenya and Tanzania. During the summer months (approx July – September) the Great Migration comprised of 1.5 million wildebeest and several hundred thousand zebra make the Maasai Mara their home. These enormous congregations of animals provide sustenance to a myriad of predators including lion, cheetah, leopard, and hyena. Visit the Mara or the Talek River to see pods of hippos and huge crocodiles, and if you’re lucky watch as a herd of wildebeest and zebra tries to run across the river, avoiding the snapping jaws of hungry crocodiles within.

Our base is Mara Plains Camp, located in the Olare Orok Conservacy, which shares a border with the Maasai Mara Reserve. The Olare Orok Conservancy is an initiative that addresses both community upliftment and wildlife conservation on Maasai-owned land on Maasai Mara Game Reserve’s northern border. We explore the private conservancy and the greater reserve area through game drives in 4WD land rovers and walking safaris. To maximize the activities of each day we set out early and have a picnic breakfast in the bush followed by a game drive. During the afternoons, when wildlife is least active, we rest at camp and then take an afternoon game drive culminating with drinks around the fire followed by a sumptuous dinner. Overnights Mara Plains Camp.

Optional activity: Maasai Mara Hot Air Ballooning

Before dawn you’ll be picked up for the drive to the launch site where you’ll meet your pilot, receive a briefing and watch the inflation of your balloon. Take off at dawn, rising with the sun. Float in whichever direction the winds of the morning take you. The balloon ride offers a unique perspective and great photographic opportunities of the wildlife below. The flight is about one hour depending on wind conditions. Celebrate after landing in the traditional manner with champagne before sitting down to a full English breakfast prepared and served in the bush in ‘Out of Africa’ style with bone china, linen table cloths, and King’s silver. We suggest you book in advance, as space is limited. $475 per person.

Accommodations: Mara Plains

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner